The Government of Colombia (GoC) has identified teenage pregnancy as a priority issue. The current strategic framework to address teenage pregnancy in Colombia is outlined in the CONPES 147, effective from February 2012 until March 2014.
... See More + The CONPES 147 establishes a multi-sectoral framework that aims to address the determining factors of teenage pregnancy within Colombia (Box 1). The national strategy outlined in the CONPES 147 was piloted in 192 municipalities for youth ages 10 through 19. Building on this strategy, the Commission for the Guarantee of Sexual and Reproductive Rights is developing a new framework to guide the government’s policy and activities to address this important policy issue in the coming years. Parallel to its work on teenage pregnancy, the GoC released a national strategic framework to generate opportunities for Colombian youth in July 2014. The note includes an overview of the WDR 2012 gender equality framework and World Bank regional study on teenage pregnancy; outlines the Colombian country context with regard to gender equality and youth labor market outcomes; reviews interventions that develop life skills; and highlights how these interventions might be relevant to the GoC policies and programs related to teenage pregnancy prevention (CONPES 147) and youth labor (CONPES 173).
See Less -

Ratings for the Strengthening Public Information, Monitoring, and Evaluation for Results Management Project under the STATCAP (APL) Program for Colombia were as follows: outcomes were satisfactory, the risk to development outcome was low or negligible, the Bank performance was moderately satisfactory, and the Borrower performance was satisfactory.
... See More + Some lessons learned included: while conceiving a whole-of-government ME system it is critical to include both technical and political economy considerations to ensure that such system is both technically sound and that it’s effectively utilized by its intended users. In the case of this project, the design of dashboards tailored to the needs of the Office of the Presidency and line ministers, illustrates the importance of addressing the needs of strategic users. The institutional and economic impact of an operation is not necessarily correlated to its size. While this operation was very small in the context of the Bank’s portfolio in Colombia, it has had a significant impact in Colombia and beyond, as SINERGIA is considered by OECD standards as a cutting-edge ME system with characteristics to be emulated elsewhere. It is important to note that if a Project of similar characteristics were to be prepared today, Reimbursable Advisory Services (RAS) will be a more adequate instrument than an investment loan. Borrowers, particularly sophisticated ones such as Colombia, can be the natural drivers of sector-wide initiatives. While the Bank played a key role in helping Colombia build awareness and consensus over the importance of strengthening its ME system, the DNP played a central role in steering implementation of this project. This, in turn, brings attention to the range of roles to be played by the Bank in sector-wide interventions in which IBRD funding is relatively small and the Borrower has strong technical and institutional capacity and strategic vision.
See Less -

Colombia has made impressive strides in reducing poverty and promoting shared prosperity during the last decade. Extreme poverty fell from 17.7 percent in 2002 to 8.1 percent in 2014, while total poverty (including moderate poverty) fell from 49.7 percent in 2002 to 29.5 percent in 2014.
... See More + The decline implies that 6.2 million people left poverty in the period. The multidimensional poverty rate, which takes into account education, health, labor, childcare, and housing, has also experienced a remarkable decline from 49 percent in 2003 to 21.9 percent in 2014. The number of multidimensional poor declined by 9.8 million. Shared prosperity indicators followed a similar trend, especially after the second half of the decade. Between 2008 and 2013, the income per capita of the bottom 40 percent of Colombians grew at an average rate of 6.6 percent, significantly higher than the national average rate of 4.1 percent for the same period. Economic growth that led to job creation has been the main driver of poverty reduction and shared prosperity gains. The economy sustained an average GDP growth of 4.4 percent during the 2000s, almost 2 percentage points higher than the previous decade. For the period 2002-2013, economic growth explains 73 percent of the reduction in extreme poverty and 84 percent of the reduction in total poverty. Moreover, price stability, and in particular stable food prices contribute to poverty outcomes. As in the case of poverty reduction, labor income growth is the main determinant of shared prosperity in recent years in Colombia. Labor income represents at least fifty percent of income growth for the poorest 10 percent of the population, and up to 70 percent for those in the fourth decile, in the period 2008-2013. This evidence highlights the importance of high growth and low inflation for achieving the World Bank’s twin goals in Colombia.
See Less -

Ratings for the Consolidation of National Public Management Information Systems Project for Colombia were as follows: outcomes were satisfactory, risk to development outcome was moderate, Bank performance was moderately satisfactory, and Borrower performance was moderately satisfactory.
... See More + Some lessons learned included: continuity in operational teams can have a substantial impact on projects’ success in achieving development outcomes. Creating and maintaining interoperability - the ability of information systems to have harmonized concepts and data, and automatically exchange information - is a process that requires continual reassessment, evolution, and a phased approach. Thorough and complete risk assessments - and the ability to adjust quickly when challenges arise - can play a critical role in ensuring the successful implementation of complicated activities. When designing a component or sub-component that is highly concentrated in information technology (IT) investment, it is important to either engage in a deep analysis of the desired functionalities during the preparation phase in order to ensure a clear understanding of the scope of the system, or to build in some flexibility in the allocation of project funds in the event of greater than expected costs.
See Less -

Ratings for the Justice Services Strengthening Project for Colombia were as follows: outcomes were moderately satisfactory, risk to development outcome was negligible to low, Bank performance was moderately satisfactory, and Borrower performance was moderately satisfactory.
... See More + Some lessons learned included: creation of a project management unit (PMU) for one particular project, or ideally reliance on the government’s own resources for project management, are alternatives that should be evaluated closely based on the nature of the project and the capacity of the government to execute it. The challenges that the implementation completion report (ICR) faced in validating the achievement of the project development objective (PDO) based on the results framework confirms the attention that project preparation needs to pay to establishing a clear causal chain between project objectives, outputs, and results indicators. ICR interviews validated the significant potential impact of decentralized service centers on making justice services more accessible to citizens. The confusion that justice sector stakeholders, ranging from judges to lawyers and citizens, seem to have experienced during the transition to the oral system confirms that any comprehensive reform initiative should be accompanied by a strong change management and training agenda. The ICR understands that the unified management model that the Judiciary is setting out to establish may serve this need. Future interventions can consider including initiatives where different cities learn from each other’s experiences and even assist each other in addressing bottlenecks in reform implementation.
See Less -

This report provides a status update on the human resources for health (HRH) sub-system in six Latin American and Caribbean countries: Colombia, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay.
... See More + The report structures its discussion around how the health workforce is financed, organized, managed, regulated, and performing. In the area of financing, the study presents the variety of contracting mechanisms, salary levels, and financial incentives offered across the countries and their role in being able to attract and retain health workers. On the organization of the HRH sub-system, the report looks at the skill-mix, training, and distribution of health care workers concluding that although the countries have made progress towards achieving key HRH targets and in making education more accessible, there continues to be limited absorption capacity for graduates, the Primary Health Care focus of training programs needs to be strengthened, and strategies to encourage rural service have not been able to fully address the gap in the distribution of health workers. In reviewing management strategies for HRH, the report presents how all countries have adopted the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel to recognize foreign-trained professionals to help address shortages and fill gaps of health worker presence in rural, remote areas. However, the countries continue to struggle with putting self-sufficiency policies in place to meet HRH needs such as the lack of promotion plans, limited non-monetary incentives, and the shortage of personnel for recruitment and eventual placement. In the area of regulation, the report presents the countries efforts to reduce precarious employment and introduce HRH safety policies and legislation to regulate disputes and negotiations. On performance, the report found mixed results in the areas of access/availability to health workers and quality of care, factors discouraging dual practice, and unjustified absenteeism of health workers.
See Less -

The objectives of the Strengthening the National System of Science, Technology, and Innovation Project for Colombia are to strengthen Administrative Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (COLCIENCIAS) capacity to promote human capital for the knowledge economy, research and development (RD) and innovation; and raise awareness of science, technology and innovation in the Colombian society.
... See More + The change is an extension of the closing date of the project from August 31, 2015 to December 31, 2015. The four month extension of the closing date will allow for: the completion of key activities for a biodiversity commercialization pilot (Priority Areas). These activities constitute a large part of component three of the project (US$4 million) and are essential activities for the achievement of the PDO. These activities have been classified by the administration as priority topics for Colombia. The completion of evaluations of pilot programs for Priority Areas (component three) and Social Appropriation (component four), which are critical for providing data and lessons learned for the achievement of the PDO.
See Less -